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Wellsprings
ethics

Friendship

φιλία

More than affection — a sharing of life and the good, which Aristotle ranked among the things most necessary for a flourishing life.

Aristotle distinguished three kinds of friendship based on what the friends value in each other. Utility friendship forms between people who benefit each other materially. Pleasure friendship rests on shared enjoyment and entertainment. Perfect friendship, the highest form, bonds two virtuous people who admire each other's character and wish each other's good for its own sake. Only this third type endures, since the others dissolve once utility or pleasure disappears.

The practical difference matters for how we should choose and test our companions. A friend should be examined like a coin before we need to depend on them, revealing whether the bond rests on genuine virtue or merely on what we can gain. Natural friendships like those between parents and children form one foundation, but the deepest bonds arise when two good people deliberately cultivate mutual regard based on who the other person truly is.

Where this idea shows up

209 Greek sources

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